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AUTHOR

OBGOLF

19 September 2016

Where does the word “fore” come from?

You may sometimes hear "fore" when you’re on the course. This word means "watch out ahead!" Any golfer, who hits an errant shot that could pose a risk to other golfers in front of the them, should yell out "fore" as a warning. According to historians at the British Golf Museum, fore evolved from “forecaddie”. A forecaddie is a person who goes ahead to watch where shots land. If a member of a group hit a wayward shot then they would alert the forecaddie by yelling this word, which was later shortened to simply "fore". However, the term also has a military origin, meaning "beware before” and used for alerting nearby infantrymen to get down to avoid the shells flying overhead.